and forfeiture of their estates; the
contested doctrine that Adam was created without any liability to death
was established by law; to deny it was a state crime. Thus it appears
that the vacillating papacy was not yet strong enough to exalt itself
above its equals, and the orthodoxy of Europe was for ever determined by
an obscure court intrigue.

[Sidenote: The Nestorian controversy.]

Scarcely was the Pelagian controversy disposed of when a new heresy
appeared. Nestorius, the Bishop of Antioch, attempted to distinguish
between the divine and human nature of Christ; he considered that they
had become too much confounded, and that "the God" ought to be kept
separate from "the Man." Hence it followed that the Virgin Mary should
not be regarded as the "Mother of God," but only the "Mother of
Christ--the God-man." Called by the Emperor Theodosius the Younger to
the episcopate of Constantinople, A.D. 427, Nestorius was very quickly
plunged by the intrigues of a disappointed faction of that city into
disputes with the populace.

[Sidenote: The doctrines of Nestorius.]

Let us hear the Bishop of Constantinople himself; he is preaching in the
great metropolitan church, setting forth, with all the eloquence of
which language is capable, the attributes of the illimitable, the
everlasting, the Almighty God. "And can this God have a mother? The
heathen notion of a god born of a mortal mother is directly confuted by
St. Paul, who declares the Lord to be without father and without mother.
Could a creature bear the uncreated?" He thus insisted that what was
born of Mary was human, and the divine was added afterwards. At once the
monks raised a riot in the city, and Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria,
espoused their cause.

Beneath the outraged orthodoxy of Cyril lay an ill-concealed motive, the
desire of the Bishop of Alexandria to humble the Bishop of
Constantinople. The uproar commenced with sermons, epistles, addresses.
Instigated by the monks of Alexandria, the monks of Constantinople took
up arms in behalf of "the Mother of God." Again we remark the eminent
position of Rome. Both parties turn to her as an arbiter. Pope Celestine
assembles a synod. The Bishop of Constantinople is ordered by the Bishop
of Rome to recant, or hold himself under excommunication, Italian
supremacy is emerging through Oriental disputes, yet not without a
struggle. Relying on his influence at court, Nestorius resists,
excommunicates Cyril, and the e